Pokémon Special: Extinction
by shaunathan
Summary: Strange things are happening. A shadowy threat emerges with unclear but sinister motives. The world's defenders rise, but this time, things may be different. Cover art done by /miraclesoup
1. Chapter 1

The sun beat down on the wooden deck of the S.S. Anne, warming it so that it scorched barefoot passengers and sent them back into the pool for the relief of its cooling waters. Around the edge of the ship, below and beyond the metal guardrail, another kind of water dully broke against the ship's steel hide in smooth waves that caused the vessel to undulate in a slow, soothing rhythm.

The climate it had sailed into over the past day was far different than from where it had started. While the temperature in Kanto was warm, it couldn't compare to the heat and humidity of the Alola region. Most of the passengers on the famous cruise ship were taking advantage of the clear skies and unfettered sun by lounging on the deck and in the pool to tan, hoping to return to their homes several shades darker.

Two passengers, however, were not participating in the activity. Leaning against the guardrail of the ship, Red, the famous league champion from Kanto, sipped a soda pop while he stared idly out ahead, waiting until their island destination came into view. To his right, his rival since childhood, the Viridian City Gym Leader, Green Oak, flipped through a travel brochure, trying his best to memorize the map before they made land.

"No mention of the Ultra Beast incident we heard about," Green muttered, scanning through the list of attractions.

Red shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they haven't updated it yet."

Green checked the date on the brochure. "No, this is from after."

Red sipped from his drink and shrugged again. "It's something they don't want potential visitors to know about, I guess."

"I read some more about it. There were apparently two kids who got caught up in it," Green added. "Dexholders. Just about as young as we were when we left on our journeys."

"Even more Dexholders," Red laughed. He shook his head in disbelief. "That's crazy. How many are there now, then? Twenty?"

"Twenty-one," Green corrected.

Red shook his head again. "Twenty-one. Jeez. It sure has come a long way from just the three of us from Pallet, hasn't it?"

"Two of us, if you don't count that pesky woman."

"Why do you call her that?" Red wondered. He sipped his soda again and clarified, "Pesky woman, I mean."

Green lowered the brochure, a halfway dangerous flash in his eyes, warning that this was unsafe territory. "She's a woman, and she gets on my nerves. It's nothing more than that."

"Not so annoying that you don't spend a lot of time with her," Red teased with a smirk, gently elbowing his companion in the ribs. He often ignored Green's subtle warnings.

"That's only research projects," Green countered, a little too defensively. "You know that. She builds devices, and she needs my help implementing them. That's all there is to it." His tone made clear he wasn't in the mood to discuss any further.

"Okay, okay," Red relented. "Just research projects, I get it. But, uh…" His normally relaxed expression suddenly turned serious. "This specific research project, or whatever you call it. What's it about again?"

A month ago, the 'pesky woman,' Blue, had gotten an urgent summons through Professor Oak from a mysterious lab in the Alola region. She'd left a letter behind explaining that she wouldn't be gone for long, and that her involvement in the research was completely safe, to address any worries her close friends might have. But the haste with which she'd left and the new message Red and Green had received two days ago, which had motivated this trip, didn't make things any less concerning.

Green closed his eyes in pensive thought. "I don't know that much about it. She sent a report to my grandpa, which means it's important. All he told me was that she and her associates in this lab have been finding some anomalies in the space-time continuum, and she needs us to get there as soon as possible to help out."

A moment of grave silence followed his words, the severity of what he had said seeming to darken even the bright tropical sun and chill the merriment of the children and Pokémon splashing about in the pool.

Red shivered. "Sounds bad, but…" He drained the rest of his soda and tossed the can into a nearby trash receptacle. "If the crisis hasn't started yet, I don't think we have much to worry about right now. I'm just looking forward to seeing Yellow again."

Red and Green's mutual friend, Yellow, had traveled to the Alola region half a month ago to help Professor Oak's cousin, Samson Oak, with the cleanup from the Ultra Beast incident, since a large part of the region had been wrecked or consumed during the alien creatures' rampage. The younger girl was staying at Samson's lab, which was on the island the S.S. Anne would be stopping at first.

Green nodded. "I'm sure my gramps' cousin is glad to have her around. She has a way with Pokémon that should be useful in restoring the ecosystem."

"I hope she isn't feeling homesick, though," Red worried. "Long times away from the Viridian Forest have always been difficult for her."

The forest that was both Yellow's home and the source of her powers had proven integral to the girl's wellbeing time and time again, and extended absences had been detrimental to her health, something which Red was very familiar with, since he was often involved in caring for her when she started to feel those ill effects.

"It hasn't been that long," Green pointed out, shrugging. "I'm sure she's fine."

Red grunted. "I hope so. I don't like the thought of her feeling bad."

"Whoa!" came a young boy's voice from behind the two trainers. They turned to find a young boy, no more than ten, staring up at them in wide-eyed awe. "It _is _you! Red, from Pallet Town!"

Grinning, Red knelt down so he was at the boy's height and extended a hand. "That's me," he affirmed as the boy shook it vigorously. "What's your name?"

"I'm Jimmy! I'm from the Unova region!" The boy grinned wide. "My town got frozen a few months ago, but we're all okay now!"

"O-Oh." Red wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that. "That's… good to hear, I guess?"

"You got frozen a long time ago too, didn't you?" Jimmy wondered.

"Yeah, for a little bit." Red chuckled. "How'd you know that?"

The boy's eyes grew wide again. "I've been reading all about you since I was three!" He held up three tiny fingers to demonstrate. "You're so cool! My favorite story is when you won the Kanto league when you were a kid!"

Red glanced up at Green, who was smirking at the conversation. "Well, Jimmy, the guy I battled against in that tournament is actually right here. Say 'hi,' Green."

Green didn't kneel like Red. Instead, he gave the young boy a cool nod and said, "Hello."

Red was afraid Jimmy's eyes might pop out of his skull. The kid's mouth stretched to its breaking point in an awe-stricken grin. "Wow! Mister Green is here too? That's so awesome! You two are, like, my favorite trainers ever! I wanna grow up and battle Pokémon just like you!"

"That's a great goal to have, Jimmy," Red said with a smile. "I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you'll be an incredible trainer."

"I'm gonna battle you when I get really strong," the young boy told him seriously. "I wanna get good enough to battle you someday!"

"You'll have to be very strong," Green warned, offering a rare compliment to his friend. "Red is a great trainer. He's the strongest of us. It takes a lot to beat him."

"I know!" Jimmy exclaimed, his enthusiasm still through the roof. "But I'm gonna do it!"

Red laughed good-naturedly, ruffling the kid's hair. "And I'll be looking forward to the day we battle."

The S.S. Anne's intercom system crackled to life above them, interrupting the conversation. "This is the captain speaking," it projected across the deck. "We are about to pass by another ship. You should be able to see it straight ahead. The passengers look like they're waving at us, so if everyone on deck would be polite and wave back, I bet it'd make their day."

On the captain's prompting, the people and Pokémon in the pool waded out and gathered at the guardrail, while the passengers who were tanning slowly got to their feet, rousing those who had fallen asleep in the soothing sunshine, and ambled over behind them to look over the shoulders of anyone shorter.

Red stood to his full height and looked out at the ship, which was rapidly drawing closer, squinting to see the passengers. He saw many people on the other vessel's smaller deck waving their arms, but upon a closer look, he noticed quite a bit of running back and forth and distant screaming that was quickly getting louder. "Uh, I don't think they're waving."

"And there's why." Green pointed toward the water just in front of the other ship.

Red squinted some more and made out a jumble of blue, red, and navy figures. When one thrashed around and shot a beam of water at the other ship, knocking it sideways, he saw a jumbled mess of tentacles, and realized it was a large group of familiar Pokémon. "It's a pod of Tentacruel."

Green nodded. "Sharpedo too, if I'm not mistaken."

"Ah crap. They're gonna do some serious damage if they keep going like that." Red glanced at his friend. "We've gotta do something."

"You can do it, guys!" Jimmy cheered, excited to see his heroes in action. "You two together can do anything!"

Red gave the boy another smile. "Thanks, kid. Don't worry, everything is gonna be okay."

In the distance, the three heard a young, female voice cry out, "Decidueye, leaf blade!" and an ever-so-slightly deeper male voice shout, "Dong, hit 'em with an avalanche!"

As they watched, a small, birdlike creature dived from the ship and slashed repeatedly at the water type Pokémon causing havoc with its wings, which it seemed to have sharpened with a coat of foliage. A giant feature that, strangely, resembled a very furry crab, jumped from the ship as well, slamming into the water, where it floated on a self-made iceberg, and proceeding to hurl large chunks of glaciated water from the surrounding at the sea, which crashed into the Pokémon and knocked several of them out.

"Who are they?" Red wondered aloud, trying to get a good look at the two trainers who had started to fight the attackers. Though it was almost impossible to distinguish any one particular figure from the mess of limbs and bodies on the deck, he swore he made out a girl with short hair and a boy with an overlarge pair of shorts commanding the Pokémon.

Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched pinging noise came from both his and Green's pockets, and they simultaneously pulled out their Pokédexes, which were the source of the noise. In the distance, cutting through all the screams of terror from the other ship and the now-worried muttering from the passengers on their own vessel, identical pings sounded from the other ship. He and Green exchanged a glance, and the serious trainer stated, "They're Pokédex holders."

Jimmy was practically catatonic at this point. Clutching his head, he choked out, "_There are more of you here?!"_

"But… huh?" Red wondered, bewildered. "Pokédexes only do that when they're from the same region, right? Is this a new thing or…?"

Just then, a human voice shouted from the mass of water Pokémon. Red wasn't sure, but he thought it was a young man exclaiming, "Ah screw it!" As he squinted to try to see the source of the voice, the crowd of Pokémon began to gyrate fervently, stirring the water around them into choppy waves and creating foamy bubbles everywhere, like the water was boiling.

Too late, Red realized what they were doing, but by the time he shouted, "They're using rain dance!" the sky had already swarmed with clouds that blotted out the sun, wind had begun to howl, droplets of water were starting to fall from above, and a bolt of lightning and almost simultaneous thunder split the sky and threw the crowd into a panic.

The waves instantly grew to ten times their former size, tossing even the massive SS Anne around like a child's playtoy. If it wasn't for the guardrail, several passengers would have gone overboard in seconds.

"All passengers, proceed to the lower decks immediately!" the captain ordered over the PA, though the order was unnecessary, since everyone was storming the staircase. Red and Green barely managed to hold on to the guardrail, and Jimmy snatched onto one of Red's pants legs to avoid being thrown off the boat completely.

"Oh no!" the boy wailed. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

"Get below deck!" Red ordered, shouting over the deafening wind and rain and rumbling thunder. "Find your parents! We'll keep you all safe!"

"Oh no!" Jimmy said again, but he followed the instruction and sprinted across the deck and down the stairs once it was flat enough to move.

Red joined Green in staring down the Pokémon, which were now much closer than before. "You got a plan?"

Green shook his head slowly, keeping his cool. "Not one."

"Great, just how I like it." Red gritted his teeth and threw a Pokéball. "Poli!" From the ball, Red's Poliwrath appeared in a puff of smoke and quickly latched onto the rail with one arm, gripping on tight as the ship hurtled uncontrollably through the stormy waters. "Get a little closer and use ice beam on as many of them as you can!" Red instructed. The Pokémon saluted and dove overboard. It would have no trouble swimming through the dangerous waters.

"I'll wait until we get closer so Golduck can unleash its full power on them," Green informed Red. "Until then, there's nothing we can do."

"Will all passengers please proceed below deck?" the captain pleaded over the PA. In response, Red simply waved back toward the tinted glass room that he knew the captain and main crew were in. This was his and Green's job. They were of infinitely more use above deck than below.

Across the water, now alarmingly close, the two passengers still on the deck of the other ship, the boy and girl Red had seen earlier, were still commanding their own Pokémon to attack the ones causing trouble. As he watched the owl-like Pokémon dive bomb again, he thought he saw, for a split second in a flash of lightning, human forms riding on the top of a few of the water Pokémon, but then the thunder roared and it was impossible to tell one shape from the next.

The boats continued to creep closer. "Now might be a good time to unleash that psychic power," Red shouted to Green, trying desperately to keep the panic out of his voice.

"They're not in range yet!" Green shouted back. "The most Golduck could do is give them a headache!"

Red gritted his teeth and thought desperately for something-anything he could do. He hated feeling helpless like this. Without any sun or solid ground, Saur wouldn't be able to help; he didn't want to risk sending out Aero because of his type disadvantage-one wrong wave or one stray bolt of lightning would knock him out of the sky; Pika would have the super effective edge, but he was small and would get tossed around; Gyara could swim, but with that many opponents, if any of them knew ice beam, he was toast… He was out of options. Desperately, he turned to the tinted glass room again and waved both arms, trying to signal the captain to change the boat's course, but it was no use.

Then, out of nowhere, a massive wave struck the ship from behind and it lurched forward. Red, with his hands off the guardrail, lost his balance, and his feet slipped off the deck. In the air, he heard Green shout, "Hold on!" and then a deafening crunch that shattered the world.

Their boat had finally crashed into the other.

Red's head slammed into the guardrail, and he was instantly unconscious. Green watched in horror as his friend flopped like a ragdoll and slipped under the rail, tumbling down into the waters below.

"Red!" he roared, fighting the urge to leap over the edge and pull his friend out of the ocean as the ships continued ripping each other to shreds. If he dived now, he'd be killed before he could even start to search.

"Sun!" another voice, young and female, wailed. Green looked up to find the girl he and Red had seen before, the one commanding the owl Pokémon, gripping desperately onto the shirt of a boy her age, shaking him in an effort to rouse him from the unconscious stupor the crash had induced.

The girl's dark hair was matted with water, twin braids hanging in disarray. Her purple eyes were terrified, her expression fiercely protective. The boy she clung to had messy hair of the same color that flopped around as his head lolled back and forth.

"Hey, you!" Green shouted over the tumult, gripping the guardrail for dear life as the hulls collapsed. "We have to get out of here!"

The girl looked up in a panic. "Who are-?" She trailed off with wide eyes as Green finally pulled the device from his pocket he'd been fumbling with since he opened his mouth. "A Pokédex! So it was-"

"Proximity sonar, yes," Green cut her off. "We have to work together-do you have any Pokemon that can fly?"

"Yes, I-" This time the girl interrupted herself, turning toward the mass of water Pokémon and shouting, "Decidueye! Dong!"

Before Green could question what she'd just said, the owl Pokémon swooped over the edge of the other ship's guardrail, followed by a hulking mass of white fur that somewhat resembled a very muscular Crawdaunt. The owl, which Green now noticed seemed to be wearing a cloak of leaves, landed and folded its wings, swaying evenly with the ship's deck like it wasn't bothered, while the furry crab landed with a thud, nudged a Pokéball at the unconscious boy's belt, and vanished inside in a puff of smoke.

Green shook his head and made a mental note to ask about these strange new Pokémon after things had settled and they'd fished Red from the waters. "Can it carry your friend?" he asked the girl, who nodded. "Good. Stick close to me."

He returned his Golduck and sent out his Pidgeot in its place, which ruffled its feathers to keep them from getting waterlogged. "Let's move," he told it as he slung himself onto its back. The Pokémon screeched and took off in a flurry of tan feathers, and the girl's owl followed suit with her on its back and the boy's arms clenched in its talons.

Two conflicting priorities clashed in Green's head as they flew out of the storm. His first instinct was to flee from the bad weather and crashing ships, alert the nearest authorities, and head up a rescue party to keep casualties to a minimum. But one of those potential casualties was his best friend, who was drowning in the ocean. If he waited too long, Red would certainly die.

While he was debating, though, a flash of lightning lit up the sky, and before he could register what was happening, blistering pain shot through his system and then he was spiraling… spiraling down to the dark waters below…

...

The deep unconsciousness lasted forever. When Green finally awoke once again, his body was on fire with pain. His eyes could barely open. Through his squinted lids, he saw brilliant blue sky above. But as two strong arms reached down and lifted him out of the water, his muscles froze, his vision darkened, and he slipped into the depths once again...


	2. Chapter2

Ruby's eyes shot open in pitch-black darkness. Immediately, his left hand clapped to his right bicep in an effort to stymie the throbbing pain that swept through the whole arm. Briefly, his sleep-addled brain told him he'd just slept on it wrong and it had fallen asleep, but that momentary reassurance quickly vanished when another wave of fire wracked him. This wasn't just a sleepy limb; what he felt was far past pins and needles.

He concluded he must have torn a muscle somehow, and so he rolled out from under the covers to turn on the lights and look. On his bedside table, the alarm clock read 6:09 AM in bright, red, blocky numbers. Though to his eyes, it simply said, "Too early to be dealing with this."

His hand missed the light switch the first time. The pain and sleepiness were blurring his perception of the world. On the second time, though, the warm yellow light from his lamp illuminated the room and the irritated arm. He rolled up his pajama sleeve and gave it a look, but he couldn't find anything wrong with it. There were no odd lumps, no obvious ripples, not even a single cut. To him, at least, it looked perfectly fine.

He briefly wondered whether he should go and consult a doctor about it, to see if an x-ray might spot something he couldn't, but already the pain was ebbing away, fading to a dull ache that still made his stomach queasy, but wasn't cause for immediate novocaine.

That realization lent strength to the theory that it might just be an overblown sleeping arm, but when he flexed it, despite the bitter soreness, it moved with just as much dexterity as his left arm. He yawned sleepily. Maybe if he just took some Tylenol he could numb it enough to get back to sleep...

And then, his consciousness finally caught up with reality, and he realized that this wasn't just some random ache. It tickled a repressed memory in the back of his mind, a memory he wasn't eager to relive. As much as he'd tried to forget, he knew exactly what this felt like.

Groudon.

Nine years ago, when the Hoenn region--no, the entire world--had fallen into crisis between the warring titans, Groudon and Kyogre, Ruby had wielded the Red Orb in an attempt to control the land legendary. The attempt had nearly killed him. He'd never known that sort of agony before, like his entire body was going to be ripped to pieces, and then after that, his mind. It had scarred his arm for several years, and, though those scars had finally faded, the memory of the blistering pain remained locked deep in his subconscious.

But now it had risen its ugly head once again, for the throbbing ache he felt this morning was the same as the beginning stages of Groudon's wrath at the attempt to restrain it.

A terrible thought crossed Ruby's mind. Had he somehow, unbeknownst to even himself, absorbed the Red Orb back into his body? It had been in him before without his knowledge. Was this the same thing?

Despite his misgivings about daring to attempt to channel the destructive energy again, he grit his teeth and focused on materializing the Orb, just like he had so many years ago. He strained so hard that the breath he'd held threatened to make his ears pop and turned him red in the face, but his arm remained unchanged. He wasn't suddenly holding a glowing red sphere, and the telltale stripes that traced themselves on his skin were nowhere to be found.

Even more confused than before, he shook his sleeve back down and considered his options. He couldn't go back to sleep. The pain in his arm wouldn't allow it. It would be rude to wake his mom at this hour, so he couldn't knock on her door and ask for advice. He could call Professor Birch to see if he knew anything, but the researcher was likely already up and out in some remote field that Ruby had no interest in exploring. He seemed to be out of options.

But just as he gave up, a worrisome thought crossed his mind. If he was having the same pain as he'd felt when he'd wielded the Red Orb, could that possibly mean Sapphire was having the same pain as she'd felt when she'd controlled the Blue Orb?

The thought of Sapphire in pain made his stomach twist. Suddenly, he had only one available plan: find her and make sure she was okay. He quickly changed into some more decent clothes, grabbed his hat and pokéballs, and headed out of the house without even taking the time to leave a note.

It was times like these when Ruby really regretted that he hadn't replaced his pair of running shoes. As he sprinted through Littleroot, he couldn't help but remember just how quickly and effortlessly he had been able to move those nine years ago. But then on his journey, the shoes had worn out. The outside was still fine, so, to Ruby's fashion sensibilities, there was no real need to buy a new pair, but the mechanisms inside had ceased to function. They were "too volatile for their own good," the news had reported. There was "no way they could last."

That was just like controlling the Orbs, now that he thought about it. It was the height of power while it lasted, but too volatile for its own good. Sooner or later, the mental fortitude of the one controlling them would fail, and they would die--or worse, be consumed by the will of the titan they had tried to control. He was afraid--deathly afraid--of that, and that fear only heightened his need to find Sapphire and make sure she was safe.

He reached the exit to town and debated his next move. It had been several days since he'd last seen Sapphire, so he had no idea where she would be. She might be at her father's lab, or she might be off adventuring in some remote corner of Hoenn, or even another region. A sickening image invaded Ruby's mind of Sapphire becoming stricken with pain while underwater, thrashing around while her air slipped away, and then becoming very still.

Most likely, though, she was in the secret base they had made together. She spent quite a bit of time there, especially when they had the opportunity to meet up. Their lives were so busy most of the time that the rare occasions they had to get together and talk and bicker like they used to were valuable. But even with that distance, their closeness hadn't changed. Their dynamic had remained just the same as it always had been, though perhaps a little more open with each other.

For a while, Ruby had considered asking Sapphire to go on a trip with him sometime, so that instead of just a few hours or a day every so often, they could have a week, or maybe even more, to just be around each other. No interruptions, no world crises, just… them. Maybe then he would even muster up the courage to tell her about…

"Ruby!"

Consumed by his own thoughts, Ruby didn't even notice that he'd run halfway from Littleroot to the secret base. The familiar voice snapped him back to reality, though, and he looked up to see Sapphire running toward him in the opposite direction. Her clothes were stained with dirt, her left knee was scraped, her hair was a mess, and she seemed to be missing one of her socks. She was beautiful, as usual.

When they met, she tackled him in a hug. "What are you doing out here this early? I was just going to Littleroot to find you."

"Going to find you," he replied, caught off-guard by the embrace. Sapphire wasn't usually the type for physical affection. Something was up. "I'm so glad you're okay."

She separated from him and gave him a suspicious look. "You're so glad I'm okay? Hang on a second. That's what I was gonna say to you. What makes you say--ow!" She winced and put a hand to her left arm, growling in annoyance as she massaged it.

"That, actually," Ruby answered, nodding to it. Suddenly, his right arm throbbed again, and he put a hand to it as well. He and Sapphire exchanged a look, and they both understood that the other had thought of exactly the same thing, and that this was far more worrisome than they'd initially suspected.

"Oh no," Sapphire moaned.

"Come on, let's get back to Littleroot," Ruby suggested. "My dad is going to be there later today. Maybe he'll know something about this. You can come over for breakfast."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "Breakfast at your house? So… you mean, like a date?"

Ruby's face grew hot. "N-No! I mean just--just in case anything happens, we should be in the same place!"

She smirked. "Whatever you say, prissy boy." A moment later, another grimace crossed her face, though, and they began walking back.

"This can't be good," Sapphire said. "Anything involving those two legendaries can't. But I don't know what's causing this." She shook her arm. "I haven't felt this in nine whole years. I thought it was all out of my system."

Ruby nodded slowly. "Me too. I tried to summon the Orb, but nothing happened."

"Same. I thought it was just phantom pain at first, but since you're having it too…" She trailed off and froze, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder to stop him as well. Her deep, blue eyes scanned the darkened trees around them, alert and suspicious. She frowned. "Do you hear anything?"

Ruby listened intently for a moment as well. He hadn't been paying attention before, but now that he focused on it, he realized that all the little sounds that usually came from the treeline around him were gone. No chittering from Wurmple, no scratching from Zigzagoon digging up buried items, no snuffling from Poochyena… nothing at all, save for the wavelike noises of wind in the trees. That was enough to put him on edge.

He sent out his Swampert, Mumu, at the same time that Sapphire sent out her Blaziken, Toro. For a few moments, all was still. Ruby briefly wondered if he and Sapphire were just paranoid, and this section of Route 101 really was just abnormally quiet today, but then the trees erupted with enraged wild Pokémon, and the two were fighting for their lives.

Immediately, Mumu had to shoot a hydro pump at a charging Zangoose before it sliced Ruby to ribbons. Just after that, the young man barely evaded a Graveler rolling at him at top speed. Mumu used mud shot at the Pokémon to stop it, but already three more were barreling toward the trainers.

To Ruby's left, Sapphire was also being attacked head-on. He could only see bits and pieces of her struggle while he ducked and dodged around blades, rocky fists, and beams of energy, but what he did see was enough to make his jaw drop. Sapphire and Toro were fighting side by side. The Pokémon was the only one that could do any real damage, but that didn't stop Sapphire from aiming kicks and punches at any opponent that came near her. Ruby watched her drop to the floor as a Graveler, already wise to the trick of leaping over its charge, jumped over her, and then get to her feet and split kick a pouncing Mightyena away. He smiled in spite of himself; she really was amazing.

Though the two were winning the battle, despite the overwhelming number of enemies, one thing stuck out about the horde: they were all much stronger than any Pokémon usually on Route 101. Each strike that Ruby dodged would easily cripple him, when anything usually from this area could do little more than bruise or graze the skin. And nothing here ever attacked without provocation, either. It didn't feel like he and Sapphire had invaded these Pokémon's territory, it felt like they'd fallen into an ambush.

Finally, after hundreds of deadly blows avoided, when both trainers and Pokémon were dead on their feet, the attackers understood they were beaten and retreated back into the wilderness.

"Oh man…" Sapphire panted, hands on her knees. "That was… was..."

"Rough," Ruby supplied in between his own scarce breaths.

"Yeah." Sapphire agreed. "That." After a moment or two more, she recalled Toro and stood up straight again. "We need to get going, fast."

Ruby nodded and recalled Mumu as well. "Right."

* * *

By the time the two got back to Ruby's home in Littleroot, the sun had risen and Ruby's mom was awake as well. When the two exhausted trainers came in the front door, her eyes widened, but instead of asking questions, she asked Sapphire, "Which kind of juice do you like, dear?" and began to bustle around the kitchen, preparing breakfast. After so many years, she understood that her son and his friends led interesting day-to-day lives, and that if he came home tired and sweaty, it was usually nothing to worry about.

Normally, Ruby would have made a beeline for the shower to rinse the grime off himself, condition his hair, and make sure he was picture perfect for the day. But with Sapphire already looking uncomfortable around his mom, he felt it wouldn't be fair to leave them alone. So instead he did most of the talking to save Sapphire from awkward questions.

"Is dad still coming today?" he asked.

"Well…" His mom kept facing toward the stove, where she was frying some bacon on a skillet. The sizzling and delicious smell made Ruby's mouth water. "He had a complication at the gym, so he'll be later than we planned, but he thinks he can still make it."

Ruby nodded. "That's good. We need to ask him something."

His mom looked back, raising an eyebrow. "Really? What is it?"

He winced. "Um… it's… you know the Orbs?"

She nodded. "Yes, I remember when all that happened. What about them?"

"Ruby and I are having the feeling like we have them in us again," Sapphire butted in. "It's probably nothing, but we should ask anyway."

To Ruby's surprise, his mom didn't react with panic at the idea that her son could be hurt. Instead, she thought for a moment, stirring the eggs, and suggested. "Maybe it's just a phantom pain. My grandfather lost his arm in an accident when I was young, and he swore until the day he died that he could still feel it tingling."

"Hopefully it's just something like that, then," Ruby agreed, though he knew it wasn't.

"Mmm. How do you like your bacon, Sapphire?"

"Pretty raw," Sapphire answered. "I'm really sorry if I'm causing you any extra trouble."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all!" Ruby's mom smiled widely. "I think it's great for a young man to have his girlfriend over to eat!"

For the second time that day, Ruby's face flushed. "Girlfriend?!" he exclaimed, about to hastily correct his mom's assumption, but before he could, Sapphire said, "Thanks for letting me eat here, ma'am." Mortified, Ruby shot her a desperate look, and she replied with a shrug that said, 'What's the harm in it?'

Just as Ruby was about to speak up and set the record straight, Sapphire cut him off (seemingly unintentionally, but he was suspicious nonetheless). "I hate to be rude, ma'am, but can we use your phone? If we can't talk to Mr. Norman right now, there are a few other people we should ask."

Ruby's mom smiled sweetly. "Of course, dear! I'm about done with this, so why don't you call while we eat?"

When the three of them were seated at the kitchen table, Sapphire thumbed through the house phone's list of contacts until she found Steven Stone. He was an avid rare gem collector, and so it made sense that if anyone knew anything about goings-on with the Red and Blue Orb, it would be him.

He answered on the third ring. "Hello," his voice crackled through the speakerphone. "Ruby?"

"And Sapphire," Ruby mended, scooping a large helping of eggs onto his plate. The battle earlier had famished him. He offered the serving dish to Sapphire, but she gave him a revolted look and mouthed, 'Baby Torchic!' Ruby was fairly certain that these weren't Torchic eggs, but he shrugged anyway and instead passed her the plate of bacon, which she willingly accepted without even a mention of, 'Baby Tepig!'

"Well, hello, you two," Steven said. He sounded intrigued that they were both calling at once.

"What's going on?"

Ruby glanced at Sapphire, silently asking who should explain. They'd known each other for so long that all it took was one look to convey that she would talk and he could jump in if necessary. After swallowing an altogether too large mouthful of bacon, she explained, "We woke up this morning with our arms hurting. Ruby's right arm and my left, I mean. It's the same sorta pain that we had when we had the Orbs in us. Do you have any idea what might be causing it to come back now?"

Ruby nodded in approval. It was blunter than he would have put it, but it got the point across.

While Steven though for a few seconds, Ruby's mom pushed the plate of bacon closer to him and mouthed, 'Eat some more!' Ruby shook his head, since he had already gotten enough eggs to last him until dinner, but his mom insisted and pushed the plate closer. 'You're a growing boy!' Sapphire snickered quietly and Ruby shot her a glare.

"That's..." Steven spoke finally. "Interesting. I might have an answer to that question, but I don't know for sure."

"What is it?" Sapphire asked.

"It's..." From the tone of his voice, Ruby imagined Steven had a pained expression on his face. "It's difficult to explain over the phone. You should come and see it for yourselves."

Ruby chewed his eggs thoughtfully, trying to ignore the sickened expression on Sapphire's face as she watched him. "Okay, then. Where are you right now?"

"I'm at the Mossdeep Space Center." Ruby and Sapphire exchanged a confused glance. That wasn't the answer either of them had been expecting. "This works out quite well, actually. I was just about to call you two and ask you to come here anyway."

That immediately made Ruby nervous, but he resisted the temptation to remain ignorant and asked, "Why is that?"

"I've been doing some research here with Emerald and Zinnia." Another exchanged glance, this time surprised. Neither of the two had seen Zinnia since the meteorite incident, and these days Emerald rarely stopped tinkering in his own lab for long enough to talk to someone, let alone collaborate on research. "We've been looking into some very alarming things that have happened recently," Steven continued. "I don't feel safe talking about them over the phone lines, since I don't know who might be listening in, but it's safe to say this might be a worldwide crisis."

Ruby's heart sank. Another crisis. That would make four in nine years. He was getting very tired of crises. "All right, we'll be there as soon as possible."

"See you then," Steven crackled, and the line went dead.

Ruby's mom, who had gone pale when she'd heard the phrase 'worldwide crisis,' stared at the two youths with wide eyes. "Just how big is all of this?" she asked simply.

"Big," Sapphire replied, just as simply. "If Steven's scared, big."

Ruby's mom turned her attention to him, her expression sad. "Ruby..."

Ruby cringed, anticipating the worst. A few months ago, he'd promised his mom that he would keep himself safe if there was another crisis. He'd seen just how stressed she got over the years whenever he put his own life in danger for the greater good, and after such a long period of peacetime, he'd thought it was time to set her mind at ease.

But instead of reminding him of that promise, she instead whispered, "Go. Do what you need to do. I know you'll be fine—both of you. Go save the world."

"Thanks, mom," Ruby said, relieved, and then began wolfing down the rest of his eggs. When Steven said 'as soon as possible,' he meant it. While he and Sapphire ate, she gave him a glance that said, 'Your mom is cool.'

"We'll stay alive," Ruby said. "I promise."

Those two words brought tears to the corner of his mom's eyes. "Thank you. You had better hurry."

With Steven's 'ASAP' motivating them to move faster, Ruby and Sapphire wolfed down the rest of their breakfast in world-record time. Within a minute, they were out the door again. They waved goodbye to Ruby's mom, Sapphire sent out her Tropius, Pilo, and in no time at all, they were gliding through the sky on its back, headed for Mossdeep City to discover what had happened to their arms.


	3. Chapter 3

Papers. A mountain of papers, as far as the eye could see. Newspapers, legal documents, census reports, Interpol files, the works. All of these, obtained through both legal and illegal means, heaped high on the table in front of Whitwo. On every page, yellow highlighter blared on top of two specific words: 'Plasma' and 'Colress.'

Through her bleary eyes, Whitwo examined the text of an alarmist newspaper article once again. While she cross-referenced it with an Interpol report and noted the vast number of dissimilarities between the accounts of the same events, she chewed on the stem of her pen. Every day she used a new pen, and, without fail, she gnawed it enough to become unusable by nightfall. It had become her way of judging time. This pen was nearly bitten in half, which meant the day must be close to over.

"Can you pass me file 216?" came Lacktwo's voice from behind a tall stack of thickly tattooed sheet paper.

Whitwo jumped a little in her seat, jarred by the interruption. "Oh, um, yes!" She licked the tips of her index finger and thumb to grip the single paper more effectively and handed it around the stack. "Here it is."

"Thank you, Whi."

Whitwo pursed her lips, still, after more than a month, unsure of how to perceive what he'd said. The nickname, which Lacktwo had taken to using shortly following the conclusion of the events in the Giant Chasm, always sounded strange in his atonal voice. He seldom expressed any sort of personality in his speech, save for that one word. Whenever he said '_Whi_,' he always made an effort to inflect emotion into it, though what that emotion was would vary with each occurence. She wasn't sure why he made such a conscious effort for only her name, making it stick out like an asterisk on a page of dashes, but it was, in a way, endearing, and she couldn't help but interpret it as such.

"Of course, Lack," she said warmly, using the nickname he'd suggested that she adopt.

For the last few months, Whitwo and Lacktwo had been living in a reserved office in the BW Agency, serving as legal consultants and paid with housing and food (while Whitwo was not well-versed in law, Lacktwo was, and she made an adept scribe). To the rest of the agency's workers, though, they were little more than ghosts haunting the office and making the copyright disputes go away more quickly.

Since Whitwo was being pursued by the International Police for her involvement with Team Plasma, and Lacktwo had a warrant out for his capture because he'd vanished without a trace, the two had to keep a low profile, and so when their senior, White, had made them the offer, they'd accepted with no hesitation. Their other senior, Black, had even offered to discuss the possibility of getting them excused from all offenses among trusted powerful figures, like Iris or Alder, once the time was right.

However, in between the legal work, on days such as this one, the two pursued another common goal. Both Whitwo and Lacktwo had a bone to pick with one particular man: Colress. For Lacktwo, he was the man who had played the largest role in creating the crisis that had gotten him fired from the International Police. While he'd played it off at the time, the unjust termination had made him grow bitter, and he pointed the finger of blame squarely at Colress. For Whitwo, he was the man who'd helped turned the noble intentions of Team Plasma rotten. He, along with Ghetsis, had corrupted the ideals she'd placed near the core of her being and turned the organization that upheld them into little more than destructive terrorists. However, the difference between the two leaders was that while had Ghetsis received his deserved punishment, Colress had slipped away unscathed. He'd vanished and gone unfound by any of the usual authorities, which left a sour taste in both Whitwo's and Lacktwo's mouths.

So, since they had a great deal of free time on their hands and little else to do with it, the two had, with Black and White's help, gathered every bit of information on Colress they could get their hands on-which ranged from sensationalist tabloids proclaiming that the man had been sighted in a local convenience store to Interpol documents with various bits of data redacted-and set about attempting to piece together a coherent story that would let them track down and deliver the retribution he deserved.

Despite Black and White's promises to help, however, it was generally just Lacktwo and Whitwo who worked on this research, since, just like today, the seniors were often busy with... other things.

The door to the office clattered open and Black and White entered, smiling and laughing, completely enraptured with each other's company.

"I still can't get over your face on that roller coaster!" Black laughed, imitating a terrified expression. "You were really scared!"

White scoffed. "As if! I was freaked out because you were screaming so loud!"

"That's what you're _supposed_ to do on a roller coaster, Prez!" he chuckled. "Not hold on to the restraining bar and grimace!"

"Excuse me, but I think it's natural to have a fear of hurtling toward the ground in a little box!" she retorted. "But, really, I _wasn't _afraid." Her expression softened. "How could I be afraid when you were next to me?"

Black's face reddened. "Ah, Prez-"

And then, quite suddenly, and with little provocation, or at least that was how it seemed to Whitwo, her seniors were kissing. It was something they did quite frequently these days, after they'd finally worked up the nerve to tell each other how they felt.

"Ahem," Lacktwo finally spoke up, making the two flinch. They broke apart and regarded their juniors sheepishly.

"Sorry," Black muttered.

"Forgot you were watching," White added with a nervous giggle.

Whitwo had also noticed that Black and White forgot they weren't alone quite frequently these days.

"How did your date go?" she asked politely.

"Oh, it was awesome!" Black said excitedly, immediately forgetting his embarrassment. "The amusement park has added some great new rides! There's this tower of terror that-"

"That we can tell them about later," White interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. A quick smile and a glance at Whitwo told her that her senior had understood the question was only a pleasantry. White and Whitwo were quite adept at reading each other's cues by now. The same could not be said for Black and Lacktwo, however. "More importantly, how is the research going? Any new leads?"

"Nothing," Lacktwo reported. "We've reached a dead end again. Whi found something interesting earlier today…" Once again, that little trill of inflection on her nickname gave Whitwo an odd warm feeling inside. "... but it was just another trail that led to him leaving the region."

"There's nothing after he leaves Unova, except an unsupported magazine article that says he bought a pickup truck in Johto," Whitwo added. "And apparently the guy who claimed that was drunk when he sold the car."

"Darn," Black said with a frown. "So he could be anywhere except here. That bites. I waited two years-and it felt like _five_\- to lay some hurt on this guy and he just runs away."

"Don't worry," White told him, putting a hand on his shoulder again and massaging it a little. "We'll find him."

Black's frown quickly morphed into a smile. "Thanks, Prez."

Watching her two seniors, Whitwo felt a swell of envy flare in her chest. She found herself wondering whether she'd ever find someone to be for her like Black was for White. Someone she trusted completely, who could cheer her up whenever she felt down.

For the longest time, she'd held out a childish hope that her former Lord N would be that person. But when they'd finally met face to face, she learned that he didn't even know her name. To him, she had always been just another entry in the list of Team Plasma members. It was then when she'd stopped idolizing him, heartbroken, her crush shattered. Now when she thought of the person she hoped would be at her side, who would have a connection with her like what her seniors had, she imagined nobody. It was enough to make her shoulders slump, seeing someone else have what she could not.

By the time Whitwo started feeling sorry for herself, Black and White were getting dangerously close to, once again, forgetting they weren't alone and starting to kiss. But just before they could, a cheerful ringtone played from White's back pocket, and she jumped.

"Who's calling my work phone at this hour?" she wondered aloud as she drew the phone and held it up to her ear. "You've reached the phone of White, President of the BW Agency. Who's calling?"

Whitwo couldn't hear the response, but it was just loud enough that she could make out the caller's voice. Gruff, manly, and somehow familiar.

White's brow creased. "I'm not going to put you on speakerphone unless you tell me who you are."

"Spam call?" Black whispered while she waited for the response.

The young president shook her head and listened intently. "Why don't you feel safe giving me your name, sir?" she asked once the man was done speaking. Her tone was becoming waspish. "If this is for a business venture, what's the harm?"

Whitwo knew her senior had to be polite because of her position, but she could tell just by looking at White's expression that she wanted nothing more than to hang up and block the number.

"Uh huh," White said, rolling her eyes. "So you can't give me your codename, but you'll give me a codename for your codename-is that right?"

"Codename for a codename?" Black mouthed, snickering.

The voice on the other end said one word and White rolled her eyes again. "Very mysterious, sir. Do you mind telling me what you want, then?"

"What was it?" Whitwo asked.

"'Watcher,'" White relayed, covering the mouthpiece with her hand.

A half second passed, and then the name finally registered in Whitwo's head. Suddenly, it all made sense. The codename for a codename, the familiarity of the voice, the extreme similarity of the codename to the one she knew…

"Looker!" she and Lacktwo blurted at the same time.

"Looker?" Black asked, bemused. "That sounds like… Does he have anything to do with that guy from the tournament? 'Lou Karr,' wasn't it?"

"I advised him to take a more sensible pseudonym…" Lacktwo sighed.

"Hey, hold on, hold on!" White protested, holding the earpiece as close to her head as she could. "All of you! What was that, sir?"

Whitwo began to tremble. Even though he'd given her a pass and made no effort to arrest her after the Giant Chasm situation, Looker was still a member of the International Police. If he, for some reason, had changed his mind, he would arrest her on sight. Could that be what he was calling about? To take her to prison?

"He's looking for somebody named Lactose," White relayed. "Though why anyone would be named that, I have no-"

"That would be me," Lack interrupted. "He isn't very good at creating codenames. Could you do like he asked and put him on speakerphone?"

After a momentary shared glance with Black, during which they had a silent debate over whether this was safe, White shrugged and laid the phone on one of the shorter piles of papers, then tapped the speaker button.

"Hello, Watcher," Lacktwo said. "This is Lactose and…" he glanced at Whitwo, thinking. "White Toast. What are you calling about and why?"

"Lactose!" Looker exclaimed. "I'm so glad I was finally able to reach you! The long distance in the Alo-I mean, the place where I am-is abysmal!"

"Surely there was a more direct mode of contact than calling a public business manager's work cell phone," Lacktwo suggested. "You could have simply called me through the phones we were given by my previous employer."

"Ah, but I could not. Your number was deleted from the International Po-the International _Pokémon_ _Fan Club's_, I should say-databases when you were fired."

"Of course. My mistake," Lacktwo said. Whitwo noticed that his eyebrows knit ever so slightly at the news, a far cry from his trained aloofness when he'd first found out about his termination months ago. "But what is our business?"

"I thought you would want to know some new information I discovered about our old acquaintance, Cold Slaw," Looker explained. At this comment, Black and White's expressions became even more confused, but Whitwo, with her fears of arrest dispelled and knowing that the silly moniker likely referred to Colress, leaned toward the phone with wide eyes. "He has recently been discovered in the… the Aloha region, let us say… during the newsworthy incident that befell the region."

"Aloha region, you say?" Lacktwo asked, using his own pen to scribble '_Alola' _on a blank sheet of paper for the others' benefit. "What do you suppose he was doing there?"

"That I don't know," Looker admitted. "But I have heard you, White Toast, and your two close friends want dearly to find him, so that is why I-" A dreadful static cut over his voice. When he returned, he was finishing, "-four should come quickly. I have some other news to share with you that I do not feel safe speaking over the phone."

Frowning, Lacktwo requested, "Can you repeat that, Watcher? You were cut off."

More static ensued from the earpiece. Only bits and pieces of Looker's next words came through. "-logize, the connection is terri-large storm has-isen just across the-come quickly, plea-" At that point, the crackling static became too loud to hear a thing, and shortly after, the line went dead, replaced with the apologetic beeping of a dropped connection.

After a moment of silence, Black spoke up. "Okay, _what_ was that? And does this have _anything_ to do with Lou Karr?"

"Not Lou Karr," Lacktwo corrected. "Looker. He's a member of the International Police and my former coworker."

"I don't think you two ever met him," Whitwo added, noticing the continued looks of complete befuddlement on her seniors' faces.

"What a strange way of giving us information," White remarked. "Codenaming everything."

"I assume he was worried the call might be bugged," Lacktwo explained. "If he was caught speaking to me, it would be his neck on the line as well."

"But aside from the codename weirdness… Colress," Black said, an excited, determined look in his eyes-the same look Whitwo had seen when she'd first met him (after he'd removed the Musharna from his head, of course). "According to this guy, he's in the, uh…" He cast a quick look at the paper on which Lacktwo had written. "Alola region. We know where he is! All we have to do is go there and catch him!"

Lacktwo nodded. "That would be a good course of action, save for the fact that Whi and I…" Yet again, the strange soft emphasis on her nickname that she couldn't ignore. "...would be a liability during any sort of travel out of the region. The air space is far more surveilled than it used to be, after Team Plasma's airship launched uncontested. It would be impossible to leave undetected."

Black's face fell. "Ah… good point. But still, there has to be…" He cast a glance at White. "Say, Prez… you know people, right?"

"Know people…?" White repeated, frowning. A moment later, though, the silent conversation between her and her boyfriend had occurred, and her eyes widened. "Oh no, I couldn't do something like that."

"Like what?" Whitwo asked, both curious as to what her seniors were considering and jealous of their close connection.

White grimaced, obviously uncomfortable with the pressure. "I can't just-do you know what would happen if we got caught?"

"Don't worry, I can talk to some people to keep it quiet, too," Black reassured her. "But you're the one with the influence."

"Influence to do what?" Whitwo asked again.

White glanced over at her. "Um… Well, I sometimes charter flights for meetings with clients from other cities and regions. Since I can do that, I _could_-and I'm not saying I agree with this-I _could_ make up a meeting in Alola to get us a private flight there, and since they know I do that often, the airport security will likely let us leave without checking to see who's on board."

"Then we have to do that," Lacktwo said immediately, drawing all attention with the authority of his claim. "Looker asked us to come quickly, and it's in all our interests to do so."

"For once I'm with the robot," Black agreed. Perhaps she just imagined it, but Whitwo thought she saw Lacktwo wince at the joke. "We all want to find Colress, so if we can, we should."

"But…" White grimaced again, and Whi-two could see her senior running through all the ways things could go wrong, just like a good CEO should. "If I get caught chartering a plane on false pretenses, that's enough to get me legally fired."

"Prez," Black said, taking her hand. "It'll be fine. I'll even help you plan it, if you want."

"Thanks…" White whispered, staring into his eyes, all the worry leaving her face.

Before they could get lost in their own world again, Whitwo interrupted. "So you'll do it?"

"Um…" White blushed and broke eye contact with Black. "Yes, I think so."

"Then we should all prepare to leave," Lacktwo asserted. "How soon can we expect to depart?"

"Tomorrow," White decided, after a moment of thought. "Assuming things go over smoothly."

Black smiled. "You're the best, Prez." And this time, before anyone could move past the point, he took initiative and kissed White.

As she watched her two seniors, Whitwo felt a growing nausea in the pit of her stomach. Her envy for their relationship clawed at her insides the more she looked. _Get a room_, she thought, repeating the phrase over and over in her head. _Get a room, get a room, get a room, get a room_. Finally she couldn't bear to watch anymore, and shuffled her papers loudly.

Jarred by the noise, Black and White separated, looking sheepish once again. "Sorry," Black apologized to his juniors, just as he had before. "Forgot you were there."

"We'll get out of your hair," White announced, taking Black's hand and leading him toward the door. "See you tomorrow!"

When they had shut the door behind themselves, the balloon of jealousy that had inflated in Whitwo's stomach suddenly burst, leaving only the vacuum feeling of deflation and defeat. She sighed and slumped forward onto the desk. Her eyes fell level with a report that read, in bold text, N's name. That didn't make her feel any better.

"Are you okay, Whi?" Lacktwo asked, leaning over the stack of papers to check on her.

Somehow, the nickname rekindled a little flame of happiness inside. She looked up at him and smiled. "Just tired."

"Ah, well, sleep will help," he said, rising from his seat. "It _is_ late."

"Yeah…" Whitwo murmured. Suddenly, on an impulse, she asked, "Hey, Lack, are you okay with not being part of the International Police?"

The moment after she asked, she realized it was a stupid, insensitive question, and prepared herself for him to give her a cold, robotic answer. But to her surprise, he instead pondered the question, and when he spoke, it was with genuine thoughtfulness. "Am I okay with it…? I suppose the answer to that is no. I was fired unjustly, simply because I realized you were willing to cooperate. And, in addition, they decided I should be arrested without giving me a chance to return and explain myself. So… no, I'm not okay with it."

"Ah," Whitwo said. That was the answer she'd expected.

"But…" Lacktwo continued, surprising her. "I am happier now. There's less oversight to my life, which is rather enjoyable. And I can work with people I actually like, rather than those I'm forced to be around."

With a jolt, Whitwo realized two things: First, he'd said he was happy. He'd never mentioned feeling anything at all before, so this was a shocking revelation. And second, by 'people he actually liked,' he meant _her_. The idea made her brain rewire itself into overdrive. She remembered how when they'd first met, both under guise of normal students, Lacktwo had flirted heavily with her in an attempt to get arbitrarily closer to her. But after their veils had come off, she hadn't gotten the impression that he particularly liked being around her at all, save for recently. Perhaps that was why he'd started using her nickname…?

"Do you miss Team Plasma?" he asked abruptly, jarring her from her thoughts and surprising her so much she sat upright.

"Um…" she stammered, frightened by the topic. "Well, I-"

Another bombshell dropped as he gave her a coy smile. "I'm not going to arrest you if you say yes, if that's what you're worried about."

Now Whitwo felt her face grow warm. As usual, he'd read her like a book. "Well…" she began, trying to regather her thoughts. Did she miss Team Plasma? "I suppose… yes. I miss it. B-But it's not really… I miss the ideals, but I don't really miss the organization. They betrayed everything they stood for and…" She cut herself off before she could mention how abandoned she'd felt when her former Lord N had treated her like nothing more than a cog in the machine. It was already enough to have the feeling inside. It would be too much to speak it out loud. "But I'm happier now, too," she added. "Since I'm working with people I know I can trust."

Lacktwo took a moment of silence again. Then, in a quiet voice, he said, "It means a lot to me that you trust me, Whi."

Whitwo's eyes widened once again at the unexpected degree of transparency he was showing. Before she could respond, however, he moved past the conversation and remarked, "It really is getting late. We should get to sleep soon." He stretched and headed for his room, which was adjacent to the office. "Good night, Whi."

Whitwo couldn't keep herself from smiling when she heard him say her nickname. "Good night, Lack."


	4. Chapter 4

It was dark and misty. Green couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding as he wandered through the darkness. No matter where he looked, all he could see was the decaying grass immediately in front of himself and the inky darkness in the distance. But the foreboding itself was a mystery. He felt no eyes on him, he could sense no other living things waiting to spring out at him, there was nothing around to make him feel threatened, and still he couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

The thought of where he was flashed across his mind. Surely he would remember how he'd found himself in this pitch dark void. But the details were murky and he soon gave up. Finding his way out was more important than remembering his way in.

Then, suddenly, the toe of his shoe bumped up against something hard. He looked down to see that he'd accidentally kicked a stone, jutting out of the ground at an odd angle. But upon closer inspection, he found that this was no ordinary stone. It was carved with words. However, when he knelt down to observe the words, they made no sense to him. It was like they were written in another language. There were words there, yes, but he couldn't decipher them.

When he stood, muttering a quick, "Sorry," to the monument he'd disturbed, he noticed that his field of vision had grown a smidgeon wider. He could see more, though the edges still dropped off into nothingness. And when he looked back the way he'd come, he found, to his surprise, that there were more gravestones where there hadn't been any before.

But surely that was impossible. He must have just missed them on his first pass and only noticed this one because he'd run into it. That was the only explanation that made sense.

His curiosity got the better of him and he backtracked to observe these new stones. Yet again, he couldn't decipher the text on them, but with each one he read, the sense of foreboding grew even stronger. It was as though the illegible letters were, one by one, climbing up and down his spine, tingling his fight-or-flight nerves and sending shivers through his body. Something here was very, very wrong.

Once again, he found he could see more, and once again, he found more gravestones. Spurred on by a morbid fascination, he read these as well. But this time, he recoiled in shock, for the words on these made sense.

_In Memoriam _, one of them read. _Crystal. Aged 21. Gone too soon from this world _.

_Crystal? _he thought, taken aback that the name and age matched his junior perfectly. _But surely she can't be dead, right? Someone would have told me! _

He whirled to look at the next marker, and his eyes widened in an even greater panic, for he knew the name on this one too.

_Rest in Peace, Yvonne Gabena. 200X-201X. _

Y? The Y _he _knew? The one he'd helped with the crisis in Kalos just a few months ago, along with her friend X? Had she died as well, and nobody had even thought to tell him?

Reeling, Green rushed back to one of the graves he'd been unable to read before, and nearly let out a panicked shout when he found himself now able to decipher it.

_In honor of the memory of Red, a strong trainer and a great man. _

Red was dead? He'd fallen off the boat and Green hadn't rescued him, sure, but not a single person had thought to tell him his best friend was dead?! This was wrong! This was all wrong!

In a hyperventilating madness, he ran from grave to grave, staring in shock at the inscriptions. Some he didn't recognize, but many he did, and they chilled him to his core.

_RIP Silver, in death his spirit lives on forever. _

"No."

_In loving memory, Sapphire Birch. Aged 19. _

"No!"

_In honor of Yellow, who will be remembered with the same love she showed to all living creatures. _

"No! Not her, too!"

_X, may he find eternal peace. _

"No, no, no, no! This can't be real!"

_Rest in peace, Blue. Aged 25. Her determined heart will live on eternally._

"No, please, not her!"

And then, a sickening realization seized hold of his insides. He looked around and counted the gravestones. With each successive tick toward the number he knew with chilling certainty they would total, he felt them all close in around him, surrounding him as though the spirits of the dead themselves were crowding close. He could feel icy cold hands tracing their way across his skin, grabbing at his shirt collar, trying to drag him toward them, but he would not look.

_20_. 20 graves.

And then, just as he knew he would, he turned around and saw one final grave in the murky ground, the only thing illuminated in the darkness.

_Green Oak _, it read in simple text. _Died, 24. Even he could not escape his fate. _

And then, with a chilling, tortured scream, the icy appendages grabbed him and pulled him into the darkness.

Green awoke in a stupor. His entire body was sore, like every muscle had been pushed to its extreme all at once. His eyes refused to open. He was vaguely aware that he was laying on something soft, which soothed the soreness. His mind was equally sore, making the voices sound like nails on a chalkboard.

"Man, he's never gonna wake up, is he? You sure you mixed this thing right?"

"Of course I'm sure. Awakenings were a part of my doctoral thesis. And for someone who got struck by lightning, he's doing fine."

"Well, we got struck by lightning, too, and we got up quicker than him."

"That's because it didn't hit us directly, Courier. He's lucky to be alive."

The word 'alive' tickled something in the back of Green's head. Hadn't he just been thinking about something being alive? Or maybe it was the other way around. Not alive. But what was he thinking of as 'not alive?'

And then it all came back to him in a rush. His eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright in the bed, scaring the boy and girl who'd been speaking witless. "Is she-are they alive?" he demanded. His voice was hoarse and dry from lack of water, and he broke into a coughing fit a moment later.

The girl, who'd barely avoided falling backwards in shock, gave him a nervous look. "Um… are who alive?"

"What the hell?" whined the boy, who _had _fallen backward.

But already the panic was dying down. Green could barely remember what he'd been so on edge about the moment prior. Static was already beginning to ring in his ears from the sudden movement and his body ached, muddling all his thoughts. "Never mind…" he dismissed, putting a hand to his temple, which was pounding especially hard.

Despite his unwell state, he couldn't stop his natural practicality, and he surveyed his surroundings. He was indeed seated in a bed, just large enough to contain him. The white sheets caved underneath him, indicating an extremely soft mattress, and at his waist, peeled back by his movement, a puffy purple blanket rested.

The room in which that bed sat was small and square. In the corner, a mahogany wardrobe took up a decent chunk of space, while the only other bit of furniture besides the bed was a minuscule wooden bedside table, on which a small digital clock rested. A thinly curtained window in the corner served as the only light source, allowing soft sunlight and a cool breeze that carried the distinct smell of seawater to enter the room.

Illuminated by that soft light were the boy and girl from the other ship. They had changed clothes since, now dressed in loose-fitting cotton garments that were obviously too big for them. The girl, who was still giving him the same quizzical stare with luminous violet eyes, had let her hair down. It was jet black and naturally straight, unlike the boy's, which was a lighter shade of black, almost with a bluish tint, and untamed.

"Sir, are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm…" Green weighed his conditions. Decidedly not okay. Probably best to keep that to himself, though. "Where am I?" he asked instead of answering. "And who are you?"

"Oh, that's easy, Mister Green," the boy supplied, sitting up cross-legged. His annoyance seemed to have vanished in an instant, replaced with a distinctly catlike smile. "We're on the second floor of the cabin of that boat captain who fished us out after we got hit by lightning."

The rush of words hit Green like a wall, and the only thing that ended up registering fully was the fact that he'd been called by name. "How do you know who I am?"

The girl shot the boy a glare, like he'd let a secret slip. "We're really sorry for snooping, but when we woke up we found your Pokédex on the table, and it has your name on the inside."

"Who's this 'we'?" the boy asked, giving her a smug grin. "_ You're _the one who got all excited and decided to open it up."

She glared at him again, but this time her cheeks colored. "That's-"

Sensing an argument about to start and seized with a strong desire to prevent himself from further headache, Green interrupted, "I'm sorry, but what exactly are your names?"

"I'm Sun," said the boy. He patted the girl on the top of the head. "And this is Miss, but her real name is Moon!"

"Ah, nice to meet you," Green mumbled. The ringing in his ears had started again, blurring his thoughts. "You said we were struck by lightning? How are we still alive?"

"The lightning caught the two of us at a glancing blow," Moon explained. "But it struck you directly. It knocked us out of the sky and into the ocean, which is, I think, the only reason we didn't die, and then a ship picked us up later. We were all burned fairly badly, but I had some Rawst Berries in my bag, so I was able to mix a salve and heal most of it. It may sting a little because I didn't have any anesthesia on hand, but we should all be fine."

"Miss was really amazing," Sun interjected. "She did all that while she was still burned up and we were still asleep! And then she also made the Awakening to get you up!"

"It's a physician's job to be prepared," Moon dismissed, but the small smile on her face betrayed her enjoyment of his praise.

Green frowned and started to ask how she was so well-versed in medicine despite looking no older than he and Red had been when they started their journeys, but at the very thought of the comparison, his eyes shot wide open. Red! How could he have forgotten?

"Where's Red?" he demanded. "Did they find him?"

Sun frowned. "Who?"

"My friend," Green explained, losing patience. Every second they wasted was another second Red could be drowning in the middle of the ocean. "He fell off the boat before they collided."

"The, um…" Moon shifted uncomfortably. Green knew his desperate expression must be frightening her, but he couldn't help it. "The sailor didn't find anyone else."

"Hey, mister, why don't we get some food and clear our heads," Sun suggested.

Green glared at him. "I don't want food, I want to find my friend."

Moon gulped. "Um… he's probably-"

"No, he isn't! Where are my Pokéballs?"

She gestured to the wardrobe, and Green threw off the covers and marched over to it. His body ached with every movement, but he wouldn't let that distract him now. He found his old clothes inside the wardrobe, still dripping wet with seawater, and snatched his Pokéballs from the belt holster, stuffing them in the pockets of his new, slightly-too-small, loaned pants.

Before Sun or Moon could say a word, he sprinted out of the room, took a wrong turn, backtracked and descended the staircase, and exited the house without bothering to look around. When someone he cared about was in danger, his thought process became one-track.

Outside on the wooden patio, he looked out over a beach, but he didn't bother to survey it. Instead, he sent out his Charizard, who was thankfully back to full health, and commanded it to take him back to the site of the shipwreck. Thankfully, the wreckage ended up being fairly easy to find, since massive parts of the ship were still floating on the surface of the water, and cleanup boats were schooling around it.

Green knew what Moon had been about to say, but he wouldn't believe it. He _couldn't _believe it. There was no way Red wasn't still alive. The guy had fought through so much before and come out of it fine. He'd been shocked with lethal doses of electricity, nearly burned to a crisp, frozen solid, turned to stone, and almost eaten alive by a Victreebeel, and he'd still kept kicking. He was the strongest, toughest Dexholder. It would take way more to kill him than a simple shipwreck.

He steered Charizard in a wild zigzag pattern over the entire area of the shipwreck, looking down over the bits of smashed wood that used to be part of the boats. His sharp eyes scanned every bit of ocean he passed over. The cleanup crew gave him funny looks when he soared over them, but he paid them no mind, and they didn't try to shoo him away.

But no matter where he looked, he couldn't find any sign of Red. There were no bodies floating on the surface of the water, there was no sign of his red jacket or black hair. He searched wider and wider areas, miles away from the wreckage, but still nothing. Eventually, he even got desperate enough to ask the cleanup crews whether they'd fished him out, but they didn't have anyone matching his description of Red on file.

Finally, he had to admit defeat. If, after hours of searching everywhere imaginable, he hadn't found Red, then he had to be…

His eyes stung at the thought. His best friend was… He didn't even want to think the word. He didn't want to believe it, but he'd seen with his own eyes that Red was nowhere to be found. And he didn't even know how long it had been since he'd been knocked unconscious. It could have been days. He'd already been running out of time before that. The conclusion was inevitable. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, Red was dead.

_Dead _.

The word rang in Green's head as he flew back to the small cabin. Dead. And no returning. Dead. And Red hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to his friends. Dead. And it was his fault. _He _had been the one to hold off on using Golduck's Psychic on the water Pokémon. If he had done that sooner, then Red wouldn't have been so distracted with them and wouldn't have hit his head on the railing. If he hadn't been so cautious and practical, his best friend would still be alive.

Guilt gnawed a hole on the inside of his stomach as he returned Charizard to its Pokéball and entered the cabin. The melancholy of grief and the rotting sensation of guilt fused together and turned his face ashen. All he wanted to do was sit somewhere and internalize his sadness, but he couldn't do that. In his mind, the two kids, Sun and Moon, were his responsibility now, just like X and Y and their friends had been during his visit to Kalos. He'd already had one person die, and he wasn't about to risk two more.

The two sat at the kitchen table he'd failed to notice before, sipping sweet-smelling brown liquid from a mug. When they saw him enter, they quickly looked away, obviously unwilling to talk to him. It was sensible on their part, since he could feel that his face was knit into a mix between a scowl and a sad frown. Even he wouldn't want to talk to himself.

The captain, however, had no such inhibitions. He was a muscular man with a bushy gray beard. When he noticed Green, he stopped washing dishes and said, "Well, you've returned. Tapu Cocoa?"

Not recognizing the name of the drink, Green shook his head. "Coffee, if you have it, please."

"Righto."

Green took a seat at the table. He couldn't stop himself from slouching. He normally never slouched, but he couldn't muster the willpower to sit up straight. It was taking all his concentration just to stop himself from tearing up, or shouting at himself for being such an idiot.

After a moment of silence, Moon gave him a sympathetic look and said, "I'm sorry."

Why'd she have to do that? Sympathy was the last thing he needed right now. He gritted his teeth to prevent himself from expressing his grief outright, and dug his fingernails into his palms to distract himself.

"Here ya go," the captain announced, plonking a large, thick mug of coffee in front of him and taking a seat at the head of the table. Green mumbled his thanks and then took a long drink. The liquid was hot and burned his mouth, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Hey, son, I'm sorry about your friend," the captain told him. "But if I'm being honest, it's a miracle even one of you survived a storm like that, especially having to escape a shipwreck. That was one of the worst storms I've ever seen. I can't imagine how it must've been inside it."

When Green didn't respond, he continued, "You know, I've seen a lot of ships get caught in storms like that-never gotten caught in one myself, but I suppose I'm just one of the lucky ones-and people die in them. That's just how seafaring is sometimes. It can all go downhill just like that." He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

At the snap, Green flinched and drank more coffee to stop his eyes from burning. The more people talked about Red's death, the more real it became.

"Maybe he is still alive," the captain mused. "There's always a possibility. But that would be incredibly lucky."

But Green knew there was no possibility. He'd seen it with his own eyes. Red was dead, and no amount of luck would bring him back. All the luck had been spent keeping himself and the two kids alive. Red's had run out. He went to take another drink of coffee to keep himself controlled, but there was none left.

Thankfully, Sun spoke and distracted him. "Uh, Mister Green, mind if I ask where you were going before the storm hit?"

It took Green a moment to remember. The information seemed so unimportant now. "I can't remember the name of the island," he confessed, wincing inside at how detached his voice sounded. "But it's wherever Looker and Anabel-I think those were their names, at least-are."

"Oh, those two?" Moon perked up, looking far more animated now that she was able to do something helpful. "We know where they are."

"Akala Island," Sun added. "We were just there a few months ago, back right after Necrozma tried to steal all the light from the world."

Once again, nothing the boy said made much sense aside from the first few words. "Akala Island," Green repeated. "That sounds right."

"We can take you there, if you want."

"Are you sure you know where it is?"

Moon nodded, answering in Sun's place. "Of course. The Courier is exceptionally good at memorizing locations. Once he's seen a place, he won't forget where it is. It's quite impressive."

Sun smiled. "Aww, Miss, you're making me blush."

"You'd better head out now, if you're going to," the captain advised. "It's nearing sunset, and soon you won't have any light."

"Good point," Green agreed, already more under control now that he had a defined goal. He knew that focusing on this task was just his way of coping with the loss, and the moment he completed it, all the restrained negativity would come back, but it was like a bandage over a wound that he didn't want to remove. It dulled the pain, even if it was temporary.

"Thanks so much for helping us out," he told the captain as he, Sun, and Moon exited the cabin and released their transport Pokémon-although Sun didn't have any, instead sharing a seat on Moon's grassy-cloaked owl.

"Anytime," he said, nodding. "It's a sailor's credo to help anyone at sea who needs it. Safe travels, you three."

As Charizard and the owl Pokémon took off into the tropical sky toward Akala Island, Green realized with a sickening jolt that he was going to meet Blue and explain to her what had happened. How was he going to tell her if he hadn't even come to terms with it himself?

He tried to shove the cloud of grief back down, but he couldn't stop one thought that still hammered in his head:

_Dead, and it's your fault. _

Hundreds of miles away, a red-haired young man sprinted through a forest in desperate flight from a horde of shadowy enemies, running for his life.


End file.
